Committing to the Bit
Five Rules for Living that Life
I have never been a fan of resolutions. An arbitrary change at an arbitrary time of year (and a tough one at that) seems like the perfect set up for a spectacular failure. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about people bettering themselves, but rarely do the “New Year, New Me” promises become permanent. Which interests me much more are those whole go all in on different aspects of life. Whether it is a certain way of dressing, a certain way of making art or a certain way of talking about Pringles, I am all about those who commit to the bit. When I lived in Williamsburg in the mid-aughts, one of our neighbors always dressed up as a milkman (bottles, wire carrier, white hat, the whole shebang) whenever he went out. To this day, I have no idea if he owned any other clothing and frankly, I do not want to know, it would ruin the whole thing. To kick off this year’s newsletter, I wanted to bring in four of my favorite people who absolutely CTTB every day to share their rules on how they live that life everyday.
I started putting this newsletter during the holiday season as a way to bring some of my favorite people together to kick off the new year. While last week changed our lives forever, I still thought it would be good to do something normal during these unsure times. It goes without saying that our home of Altadena was devastated this past week. If you can, please consider donating to some of those in need:
And for those who need additional mental support, here is a list of therapists offering free services during this difficult time.
Rule One - Don't Forget Your Neighborhood (Because Your Neighborhood Won't Forget You)
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been on the hunt for a scene. A vibe. A crew. You know what I mean — the kind of people who just get it. That magic mix of shared meals, inside jokes, and someone always willing to lend a hand when you need it (or at least split the check).
Finding your people isn’t easy. It takes time, awkward conversations, and showing up when it’s inconvenient. But once you’ve got them? It’s the closest thing to real magic this side of Hogwarts. Most days, being part of a community means doing the small stuff — celebrating wins, picking each other up after losses, and just showing up to be there. But then there are the moments when you need more. When life knocks you down, and you don’t just want your community — you need them.
That’s what happened to me. We lost our home in the Eaton Canyon fire. Our neighborhood, our space, our roots — gone. And in those first days, as we sifted through the ashes, people kept asking: Are you going to rebuild? Are you coming back?
And the answer was obvious. Absolutely. Because as much as I loved my neighborhood before, I’m straight-up obsessed with it now. That fire didn’t burn down my community. It reinforced it. The people who rallied around us became more than neighbors. They became family.
So, don’t forget your neighborhood. Lean into it. Invest in it. Show up to the block party, make small talk in line at the coffee shop, ask how someone’s kid is doing in school. Because one day, when you’ve fallen and need someone to catch you, your neighborhood will be right there to do the same.
Rule Two - The Only Way Out Is Through - Andrew Raposo
Audiences are like dogs--they can smell fear. When you are on stage, flop-sweat is blood in shark infested waters. If you are trying for something and you start to feel like you're losing the crowd, the worst possible thing you can do is start panicking towards an exit. You must commit, commit, commit. Most people sitting out there in the dark with their drinks in front of them want you to succeed--they trust that you know how to entertain them in ways the friends they showed up with don't. Use that trust. Let it be the confidence-wind in your four-minute-long-dick-joke sails. If you start backing out, you've not just wasted their time, you've made them feel foolish for having spent the money they make at their job to see you do yours. That is unforgivable. Bombing, however, is not.
Rule Three - Back Yourself - Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
I have a lot of notes illegibly scrawled on my studio wall, one of the few that is all caps and legible says “Commit to the bit”. I think maybe it’s a comedians adage, but it works very well in my world too. Within the process of making music it is a reminder to stay locked into the primary ideas of the project, a little shield against the doubts and exhaustion. An idea that contains it’s excuses is not really any good, you have to jump all the way in. But commitment is so powerful that even a fully committed bad idea is pretty good in the end! Once the work is finished and you are adding it to the international racket, the story telling needs to be simpler and more repetitive than ever, committed to the central themes and secret rules. That might feel exceedingly repetitive and boring to you, but to anyone else it’s what they want to see: your belief and love for the little world you’ve created.
Rule Four - Always Double Down - Paizley Lee (Full Essay)
There’s no greater pleasure than experiencing the intimacy that comes with a good inside secret; they’re the cornerstone of every great friend group, religion, or maybe even a cult (if you’re lucky). Now, secrets can be a little dangerous, but inside jokes are absolutely apocalypse, recession, and election-proof. That’s where the good ol’ bit comes into play. It’s a lot of creating something out of nothing and RUNNING with it.
So, what’s a bit? ChatGPT says it’s “a comedic term that refers to a joke, routine, or humorous concept that someone performs or commits to.” Fuck that. Bits have no genre. It’s you making bets and doubling down until it means something. Example: Buy and smash a bottle of Sunny Delight on the side of a wall every day. Sure, the first couple of days are weird and maybe wasteful, but I’ll bet after six months, someone will call it an art project. That’s because we, as people, are always trying to rationalize and find meaning in the most mundane things. Although, there’s nothing mundane about Sunny Delight.
Rule Five - Commit with a Sense of Joy - Stephanie Voyer
Committing to the bit is probably the closest I’ll ever get to a spiritual practice. Like meditation, it demands a level of mindfulness that might look, to an outside observer, like you’ve completely lost your mind. I think it was Shakespeare who said, "To commit or be committed, that is the question." But I digress.
I don’t have any hard-and-fast rules about committing to the bit because, honestly, anything can be a bit if your mind is twisted enough: immigrating to the U.S. on a whim to manage a Michelin-starred restaurant with almost zero experience, writing a wine book (Spilled: Winemakers’ Stories & Recipes, out this spring) while managing said restaurant, or asking people if they’d let you wear a conehead during sex
If I had to give advice to aspiring bit-committers, it’d be this: approach every bit with a sense of joy. (Yes, my eyes are also attempting a full 360-degree roll at that sentence, but bear with me.) If I can drop the mask for a moment—yes, that mask, the Jim Carrey one—joy is kind of all we have. Sure, the word gets a bad rap because it exists in the same Pinterest-y cursive decal realm as live, laugh, love, but hear me out.
Finding joy in any situation, spotting the fun or funny angle and turning it into a bit, makes it easier to keep going, even when things get tough. And the more you throw yourself into it, the more you invite others to join in, turning a one-person bit into a shared, chaotic masterpiece.
Things feel pretty bleak right now (even bleaker than when I drafted this a week ago), but joy as a lens is still accessible. Joy lives in the tiniest goofs that spark the biggest laughs with people you love. And to me, that might just be the whole point of life.
So, I guess what I’m saying is: live, laugh, love—and commit to the bit.
We recorded this episode on Tuesday, January 7th at 12:30pm. A few hours later, Travis Hayden, chef of Bar Etoile, would lose his house to the Palisades Fire and my family would lose our house to the Eaton Canyon Fire. Our communities have been devastated, but also beyond supportive and full of so much love. We wanted to share the episode we had put together for the start of the year to have something normal and regular.
On this episode of Snacky Tunes, Darin sits down with Julian, Jill, and Travis of Bar Etoile to chat about their recent opening and all of the amazing success from the jump. They talk about their journey to starting the restaurant, why they wanted to build a neighborhood spot, and which dish of theirs was named one of the best in LA. Then we hang out with Andrew Dost of Metal Bubble Trio, who talks about and plays tracks from his new album, Cucumber. We talk about his love for food, his creative process and how music & art has helped shape his life.
If you are looking to feed the community who was effected by the LA fire, please donate to WCK.